Social networks are betting increasingly by an algorithm to sort the content based on relevance, and Twitter is no exception. In fact, last month opened this feature allowing newsfeed organize alternative to chronological form, something that did not like much to users.

And that approach has been timid (because the user has the option to disable the order to return to the chronological relevance). Since Twitter was assured that bet on the algorithm would only bring benefits to users, they would find easily those tweets most relevant to them (which, they hoped, would generate more interaction and more attracted to the social network), but in Anyway, to prioritize transparency and user control, they may choose each of the options, compare and make your decision.

However, most tweeters would not wait to try the timeline ordered by algorithm to criticize. During the first days of this new criticism, calling it a copy of Facebook, and recalling that the appeal of Twitter lies precisely in the fact there always find the recent developments occurred. #RIPTwitter: Up to a hashtag that made it clear what the user feelings were created.

However, now that the relevancy algorithm is set by default, there are few users who have manually decided to return to the chronological order, according to figures from the company, have been less than 10% (although it would have to contemplate how many users do not know that they have the option to turn it off or putting it into practice). In any case, Twitter says there has been an increase in the ratio of favorites, retweets, replies and messages per user since the launch of the new timeline. No shared data specifically, but this could be a sign that the change would be running.

Do not forget that something very similar happened with the theme of change of the stars favorite for hearts “like”, which was also widely criticized at the time, but an increase of 6% in the number of interactions .

How does the algorithm by relevance?

Users now have the option to disable (in the app settings, in the section called timeline) if you do not want to receive “the best first tweets”. But what are those best tweets?

Are those considered most relevant by the algorithm Twitter, it works, as we have said so similar to Facebook. So, what the topics that interest you or the activity of other people like it appears above all would be determined by a variety of signals, such as accounts and tweets with a user often interact, among other things.

Although both timelines remain available for a long time, so users can decide whether they want it or not, it is to see if good retention figures and interactions of the first days of using the algorithm will continue to occur later.

In any case, it is clear to all social networks is key to the news feed as attractive as possible for users, so that the engagement is triggered: Facebook was the first to see the need for this, but more and more platforms social add up, and the most recent was Instagram. A change that is not always well accepted by the user, but nevertheless ends up being beneficial for social networks.